Peace Dondi,
Those are verry good questions and inshAllah I'll try to answer them as far as I know:
Islam is a verry moral and ethical way of life; it teaches humility, moderation, a sense of shame and embarrasment for lewd and rude behaviuor, respect for the elders, effection for the youngers, respect and love for all human beings, it inculcates a strong sense of right and wrong thus a muslim naturally develops an abhorrence towards crimes and evil such as theft, lying, racism, murder, rape, child abuse, disrespect for parents, not abiding by the law, prejudice, injustice, denying peoples rights etc, etc.
It enjoins purity of soul, mind, and the physical body; i.e, by praying five times a day and virtually living our lives for the pleasure of God and refraining form sins, our soul and heart remains pure, and we keep our physical body pure too, 24/7; in addiction to having the regular baths/showers, etc, we also wash five times a day before prayers...and after answernig the call of nature, we wash our private parts with water in addition to using toilet paper or mud [which is a cleansing agent].
We are so carefull in keeping our physical body cleans, that we even hold a peace of tissue or clump of dry earth to our 'dingy', after urinating, and walk around a bit so that all the other drops of uring will come out, and then we wash with water, and all this is done so as not to get drops of urine on our legs after we 'zip up'.
We have enormous respect for our parents and wouldn't even dream of sending them off to an old peoples home once they've reached old age; we look after them in a family atmosphere untill their verry end; we even support them from our money if we have to.
We value family life and keep good family ties with all members of family and extended family thruoghout our lives.
Our principles of business pactices are based on the common good and benevolence; we abhor the exploitative and selfish practice of charging/taking interest/usury in our business practices so we help our fellow mankind by giving them interest free loans and we ourselves refrain from taking or giving any interest.
We abstain from harmfull and polluting food and drinks and only consume what is pure; we dont drink alcohol [which is behnid so many crimes and destrcution and greif in peoples lives] or take any kind of intoxicants, and we only eat halaal food, i.e, those that do not harm [cutting of the animals throat releases the maximum amount of blood from the animal, thus the blood whcih can carry deseases and other harmfull bacteria, germs, etc, is drained out to the max in 'halaal' slaughters', thus making it pure and healthy; we also slaughter in the name of the One and Only God, thus making the intention for the slaughter, pure as well]
We refrain from harmfull practices that tear away at the verry fibre of a healthy and moral society; we do not have sex before marraige or extra marital sex after marriage; our culture is built around refrainnig from what can potentially lead to fornication/adultery and an immoral life; i.e. we dont even 'date' for it can lead to fornication, and we prohibit free mixing with the opposite sex; we do not indulge in dirty and immoral stuff such as viewing pornograhpy, etc, etc,
We do not gamble for gambling is a great evil that is based on benifitng some at the harm of others, and it is destroying many lives, for it is addictive as well.
We care for the poor and destitue of the world, and help them from our wealth by regulary/anually givng in charity.
In a nutshell, I'd say that the Islamic cutlure enjoins everything that is good; i.e, being kind, loving, generous, moral, ethical, honest, just, clean, sincere, benevolent, charitable, spiritual, etc, and prohibits everything that is bad, i.e, alcohol, gambling, lying, theiving, harbouring abd feelings against other humans, being crafty, manipulative, deceptive, commitng cirmes however big or small, etc, etc.
And abvoe all, we dont do any of the abvoe in vain, for we have concrete and unmistakable evidence that this is the guidance from God Allimghty, so we take pleasure and satisfaction from the fact that we know that this is how manknind should lvie their lvies, according to the way God ahs enjoined on us, and that we will be rewarded immensely in the hereafter for every good deed we do; we get a 'preliminary' reward in this wrold too, whcih is; we have peace of mind haert and our souls are illuminated with the light of faith; not to mention that our rizk [the neccessitites that we need in this wrold] is made easy for us to obtain.
We aslo have a verry rich intellecutal tradition, thus our religion aspires us to be educated and enlightened people, that takes part in every sphere of life, concerning the well being of this earth and it's people.
If a person can imagine a verry enjoyable and fullfilling life, without the sinfull pleasures of the world, i.e, without fronication, gambling, pornograhpy, etc, then Islam is surely the religion for him
Peace and blessings
ps: forgot to mention that special month which we have the pleasure and joy of experiencing every year!; Fasting in the month of Ramadan is a verry special occasion for us, for we can really put our faiths to the test by refraining from eating for Allah during day time; it teaches us self control, sympathy and empathy for the poor, and it's great for our health too, for overeating and the poor control over peoples diet contributes to many deseases and helath problems in people. Every day during the month of Ramadan, the time for breaking fast is turly an equsite experience for we prepare special food that tastes so much better as we tuck in while we are verry hungry indeed!; it is a month of mercy and blessings where Allah gives us blessings in our sustenance and forigves us of all our past sins, once we have completed the fasts.
